Of Life, Death, and Remembrance
by Kaliotrimma
Summary: In which there is sorrow in a time of war, and a revelation about life itself. GaaraxHanabi, crack pairing FTW, hints of ShikaTem, NaruSasuSaku. Oneshot.


This is a Gaara-centric fic, something I've never done before. This is also in the future, set during a war with Iwagakure. I don't know what to say. This killed me to write.

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Kazekage. A powerful post… also, one full of loneliness, and sorrow. Every day, Gaara had no choice but to send out squads of his shinobi, in this time of war- Many of which, he knew, would never be coming back.

Every day, he ruined a family. Took the parents from children.

Telling himself that if he didn't, those children would die themselves.

It didn't help. So he steeled his heart, tried to block the sorrow that overcame him as more and more troops went out, and less came back.

Kankurou- He was wounded, dying. None of the medics had the heart to tell him, but he knew. His brother was going to leave him, and he would never come back.

There were others, those not of his village. They fought alongside him. Konohagakure shinobi, his allies. They eased his sorrow. But it was there.

Sakura, the pink haired kunoichi. She had saved Kankurou, stopped the bleeding, closed the wound… but the poison within him had burrowed deep. She had saved him from such a thing once… never again.

"Gaara."

He refused to look. Naruto called to him, again.

"Gaara."

"Kazekage-sama." A smaller voice. Unrecognized, but familiar to him in some way.

He looked. Had no choice but to look.

She was small, with long dark hair, and white eyes. Like Neji, or his cousin Hinata.

Her clothes were plain- A white, kimono top with long sleeves. Black pants, Capri style. Shoes suited for desert wear.

She had bloodstains all over her, and she was beautiful.

"Hanabi, go. You should be in the medical bay, helping." Naruto told the girl sternly, giving her a small push in the right direction. "Sakura needs your help; Hinata's worn out, she can't use her Byakugan anymore."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." She ran off, leaving footprints of blood on the floor.

"I'm sorry," Naruto told him, "Kankurou- I- We don't think he's going to make it. Sakura can't isolate the poison- It's hidden too well."

"I understand." Gaara turned from him, stared long and hard at the wall. He should be crying. He could not cry. His brother was dying, and the only thing he could do was pray for the tears to come, and think about the girl.

Hyuuga. She was a Hyuuga. No one in his village had hair so dark… it was beautiful.

"Gaara… Do you… I mean… before he… do you want to see him?" Naruto obviously couldn't say the words. 'Before he dies… Do you want to say goodbye?'

"Yes. No. I…" Finally, he found the tears. They burned down his cheeks; suddenly, he was six again, carving the symbol of a self-loving demon into his flesh, mourning the loss of the one who had loved him, hated him. "I don't want him to leave me. I promised… that I would protect everyone."

"You can't." Naruto's voice cracked, "It was my goal. And it was a good goal. I wanted to make everyone safe. But… you can't. People die. You can't save everyone."

"But you saved who you wanted most to save. Why can't I?"

"I saved Sasuke because I was too stubborn. Kankurou- He is very different. And the world isn't fair."

"No… but it should be. Yes. I would like to go see him."

They walked in silence; Gaara flinched every time someone ran by him, carrying someone else, dying, on a stretcher. It was horrible- Any of those people could have a family waiting, worrying- and they probably did.

War…

It shouldn't have happened.

Kankurou- All of them, should not have been hurt. There should not be war. War should not exist.

It did exist, and was an ugly reality. One that he did not have the power to change.

Why did people fight? Why did people kill each other?

He was afraid of the answer. Did not want to know, although he had to know.

Who was next? Who would be the next casualty? Would it be Sakura, the miracle healer? Would it be Temari, his beloved sister, or her lazy lover? Would it be that blonde ball of sunshine, or the dark haired man he had risked everything to save from himself? Would it be himself, the Kazekage, the pillar of strength that held his village? Would it be the girl, Hanabi, who looked so beautiful covered in blood?

"Hokage-sama! Kazekage-sama!" The girl- no, woman- who ran up to them was blonde- Her eyes were blue, pupiless. She looked stunned, happy. Her arms were coated, up to the elbows, in blood, but she was ecstatic. "We- We saved him. Kankurou- He's going to be okay."

"What?"

Gaara himself was speechless.

"Ino- How'd you do it?" Naruto was nearly reeling from the shock, "I thought we'd tried everything!"

"It was Hanabi-san! She wouldn't stop scanning him with her Byakugan, and she found a patch of flesh that was a different temperature than the rest, and it was the- We got the poison out, he's going to be okay."

"I thought Hinata couldn't find it!"

"Hinata- Well, her Byakugan is just as good as Hanabi's when they're fully charged, but she was running low on chakra, so…"

"He's going to be fine?" Gaara finally choked out, "You're sure?"

"Well, now that we have a sample of the poison, we've got an antidote made. So even if we missed some when we extracted it- We can cure it. And no one else is going to die from that stuff."

Gaara could have kissed the girl where she stood- Instead, he ran down the halls, sand leaping off the walls where he had placed it (In case of a sneak attack, he would always have a weapon) to follow him.

Cheers were erupting from the medical ward- Everyone was gathered around her, the dark haired girl. She was beaming, hair tied up to keep it out of the way, and there was blood on her face.

His blood- Kankurou's blood. She had saved him. She would save more…

Kankurou was okay. His brother was going to live.

"Thank you." He didn't walk into the room. He didn't meet her eyes. "You saved him. Thank you."

"It's my job." She informed him, going over to the sink and washing her hands off. Blood dyed the water going down the drain pink.

"Everyone thought he was… But you…"

"I don't give up on people. There is such a thing as too far gone… but he wasn't. You don't need to thank me. Please don't thank me. There are too many deaths in this war… for you to thank me for saving a single life."

"I know. But you saved a life. That is worth my thanks."

"I only wish I could do more."

"As we all do. I must go. My place is on the battlefield, defending my people." And he turned, and he left. And he battled, and he killed… and eventually, he fell.

The next person Hanabi saved from the icy hands of death was that man.

She told him, as she pulled the poisoned blades from him, "Anyone who fights for what he believes in is a hero. Death is part of life. But I'll be damned if I'm going to let you go so soon- Because you have so much left to live for."

He did. Gaara was not weak, but he was not strong. He pulled through, as his brother did, and lived to see many of his friends fall in battle. And some of them he never saw again. For instance… Uchiha Sasuke. The man who had haunted the minds of many, made them fear, or pray, or hope… He fell, by twin blades. He did not get back up. Despite all attempts made by those who loved him. That miracle kunoichi with hair like the sakura blossoms, she wept for him, tried to heal him even as he died, telling her that he had always loved her, loved them both, more than life itself. Naruto- who screamed to the heavens as his friend, rival, lover, brother, left him for all of eternity- who yelled to the gods "Why!?!"

He knew those wounds would never heal. He watched his friends fall apart, torn by the losses they sustained. He held the orphaned children tightly to him, comforted them as they wept. Told them that it was okay to hate him.

They did not. It broke his heart. They should hate him. He had killed their parents, however indirectly, and they loved him.

War does not last forever. Eventually, it came to a close. And the funeral pyres blazed.

Too many died. Too many were left behind. There was too much sorrow.

Naruto was by his side at the great funeral ceremony. They were the Kages. They had a role to fill, and they filled it.

"We are gathered here to honor those who sacrificed everything for the protection of their loved ones. We are here to honor the lives of friends, family, lovers. We are here to show that their deaths were not meaningless." His voice was clear, ringing out in the silence.

He could see the faces in the crowds. Tear streaked, somber, scarred faces stared back at him.

"We are gathered together in remembrance."

Sakura, wiping the tears from her face as she held before her the framed picture of her deceased team-mate, friend, lover. Naruto could not stop looking at it, even as he spoke.

"And we are gathered to show that we will continue. That we will forge ahead, and begin anew, always with the memories of our loved ones in our hearts. I cannot speak for all of you. I can only speak for myself. You are all here for your own reasons. Many of those reasons are shared, but they are all your own. I am here to mourn the loss of my comrades, my friends, and my lover. You may be here to remember a brother, or sister."

Hanabi, on her knees, tears streaming down her face. She could not save her sister. A boy, familiar to him, dropped to her side, helped her back up. His glasses slipped down his nose.

"I am also here to honor the healers, to give them praise for saving so many. Sakura. If you will."

She stepped forward, red-rimmed eyes clear, picture firm in her grasp. "I am the head of all of the medical squads. Many of the faces I see in this crowd are those that I brought back from death. But I see something else in this crowd. I see the faces of those that I could not save, reflected in the eyes of children and parents alike. The people I could not save are the ones who will haunt me at night." She gestured to the picture she held. "He is one of them. He will be sorely missed. Many people died in this war, people that I knew intimately. They will not be forgotten. Your loved ones live on. They live on within you. I am only sorry that they could not be saved." Sakura stepped back. It was his turn to speak again.

"This is a time of sorrow. We know this all too well. But we must band together in our shared sorrow, in an attempt. A brave attempt, to make sure that this wound will heal. A scar left behind, the faces of those we have lost, will forever be a reminder of our weakness. But weakness is what makes us human. We make mistakes, and sometimes they cannot be reversed. It is a fact of life. We cannot fear it. So let us take this time of sorrow, and transform it. A rebirth, a promise of laughter to come. Let us turn sadness into joy. For that is the way it should be."

Life was not fair. But it was something you could work with.

* * *

In closing, life sucks. It truly does.But you have to live with it, or you die with it. (Yes, I was feeling morbid when I wrote this.)

Sasuke is dead. Yes. Now nobody go 'Ugh, why is he with Naruto AND Sakura?' Team seven lived for and loved one another. They were, and are, everything to each other. Naruto loves Sasuke. Sasuke loved Naruto. Naruto loves Sakura, Sakura loves Naruto. Sasuke loved Sakura, and Sakura loves Sasuke. Thus, they are whole.

GaaraxHanabi. If you're wondering, I have no idea where it came from .But I'm making it work.

You don't have to review. This fic was for me. It was not 'What do the fans want?' it was 'What do I want?'

And I'm happy with this.


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